The government of Venezuela suspended direct flights with Chile, one day after the Chilean president, Gabriel Boric, accused his counterpart Nicolás Maduro of “stealing” the elections on July 28, in a speech before the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN).
The National Institute of Civil Aeronautics of Venezuela (INAC) issued an official notification on Wednesday in which it announced that “air-commercial passenger transportation operations to and from the Republic of Chile are suspended.”
The statement does not explain the reason for the measurea, but the suspension of flights with Chile increases the level of diplomatic tension that has existed since the last elections in the Caribbean country.
For its part, The Chilean government regretted Venezuela’s decision to suspend flights between the two countries.
“This is a unilateral decision that once again puts nearly 800,000 Venezuelans residing in our country in a vulnerable situation. It is an unjustified action and one that we regret,” said a spokesperson for the Chilean Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a brief message.
In his speech on Wednesday before the UN, Gabriel Boric once again questioned the results of the presidential elections in Venezuela that gave victory to Nicolás Maduro, without the minutes of the voting tables having been published so far.
“Chile is especially attentive to the critical situation that Venezuela is experiencing. “We are facing a dictatorship that intends to steal an election, that persecutes its opponents and that is indifferent to the exile not of thousands, but of millions of its citizens,” said the Chilean president.
He added that the political and economic crisis in Venezuela has expelled more than 7 million Venezuelans from the countryof which about 800,000 are in Chile.
“Out of responsibility I must be clear on this point: Chile is not in a position to receive more migration,” Boric concluded.
Less connectivity with the world
The indefinite suspension of flights with Chile will come into effect starting this weekend with the cancellation of the sale of tickets for its flights between Caracas and Santiago.
With this, Venezuela reduces its connectivity with the world by 54%, according to the president of the Association of Airlines in Venezuela (ALAV), Marisela de Loaiza, to the news site Estudio Cocuyo.
“Of the 181 international flights per week that there were before, there were 83 left, that is, 98 less, which is equivalent to about 15,000 weekly seats that are no longer available,” he told the Venezuelan media.
Venezuela had been recovering connectivity with other countries after the pandemic after, since 2014, the weekly frequencies of international flights decreased.
If in 2013 there were about 352 international flights a week, in 2019 the figure dropped to only 100.
This was due to the airlines gradually withdrawing from the country due to “the impossibility of repatriating funds to their countries of origin,” as well as “the fall of the market,” according to the Association of Airlines in Venezuela (ALAV).
The measure that leaves flights to Chile on the ground is added to the temporary cessation of air operations with Panama, the Dominican Republic and Peru ordered by Maduro in response to the criticism of those governments of the questioned electoral result that proclaimed him president.
This order, in force since July 31, was explained by the INAC – in a message on the social network
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